Falling Star
by Azusasan
Summary: Agatio x Karst. One last night at Prox before venturing onwards to the Mars Lighthouse. The soft side of Agatio and the fearful part of Karst are seen here. Oneshot.


Falling Star  
  
| x x x |  
  
Pairing: Agatio x Karst. Cuz there just isn't enough of it. (And I think they have potential to be a really cute couple!)  
  
Dedication: Everyone that's fave'd me. 65 people love me, or at least think they do. =) Much love from Azu to you! ::Major SHNUG:: I miss you, Ramen and Ed! ;__; You gals are the only people I've met in real life that like yaoi as much as I do! PLEEEEZE DON'T MOVE! You already live far away enough! ...Eh, you guys prolly aren't reading this, anyway... (Play GS, you crazies!)  
  
Minor warnings: More of my traditional angst. ;-; ::Cry:: SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T BEATEN TLA!  
  
(...Why doesn't FF.Net allow me to use enter more than once? And how come nothing's italic-ized or bold-ized? o_O;; ::Kicks Xing::)  
  
| x x x |  
  
"Do you really believe it?"  
  
Karst blinked. "Care to clarify some more?"  
  
"That if you wish on a falling star, it'll come true."  
  
"Pssh. That's just a child's tale. It doesn't happen."  
  
"You really think so?" Agatio looked up at the cloudly night sky dubiously. Karst stared at him in disbelief.  
  
"Agatio! You're a hardened warrior! You don't believe this stuff, do you?"  
  
"Well..."  
  
Karst ignored the little nagging voice in her head that was saying to her: Don't hurt his feelings, idiot! He's a mean, green, fighting machine, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have some soft spots! "Agatio, come ON. That's just some little whimsical thought that parents told their children so they could grow up and write sappy romance on it!"  
  
Agatio made a 'Hmm' kind of noise. Karst rolled her eyes, tugging her shawl tighter around her shoulders. Here they sat, on Agatio's roof in Prox. They would leave for the Lighthouse tomorrow morning, but the blizzard had miraculously slackened for that night, and it was too good a chance to pass up. Karst had found it hurt more to come home when there wasn't anybody there to greet you at the gate. Like, say, your deceased sister. Or said sister's grouchy, but also dead-as-a-doornail-beau. It hurt. Like a stake through the heart.  
  
"...Karst... do you ever get the feeling you might die tomorrow?"  
  
Karst blinked furiously to keep her tears hidden from her travelling companion. "W-why should I? There's nothing to fear, is there?"  
  
"Still. I was sent out of Prox with the title as the strongest of the city, and I always think every night before I fall asleep that I might not be around to see the blue sky the next day."  
  
"Agatio, you're stranger than when we left," Karst sighed.  
  
"I'm so misunderstood sometimes..." Agatio grumbled.  
  
"I -- I understand, Agatio! I just... I don't ever..."  
  
"You don't understand." Agatio cut her off abruptly. "Try as you may, dear Karst, you won't understand."  
  
Karst growled, taking a clod of snow in her mittened hands and chucking it at him. "Idiot! My sister DIED! I understand! I just don't WANT to!"  
  
Agatio was silent after her outburst. Karst's head drooped as the frigid air settled around both of them like suffocating blankets.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"No, I am. I don't try sometimes."  
  
"You do try, Karst. I'm just blind enough that I don't see it."  
  
Agatio took her small hand in his large, sword-calloused one. Karst looked up at him shyly, a sudden change in her normally brash character. Agatio wrapped his other arm around her shoulders, drawing her next to his large frame.  
  
"I might see my sister tomorrow, Agatio... I don't know whether to be scared or to be happy." Karst murmured as she stared blankly out into the deep violet sky.  
  
"Be happy, Karst. Fear gets a person no where."  
  
"Agatio... I just keep thinking that -- that -- I won't be around tomorrow!"  
  
"There, there. You will be. If I live, you have to, too." After a lengthy silence, he said quietly, "Do you remember the time Menardi stole Saturos's sword and threw it into the thin ice of the river?"  
  
Karst started. He couldn't have been speaking so easily about her dead sister just to hurt her feelings... To make her feel better? He really was a gentle giant. She smiled, swinging her legs back and forth. "Yeah... And he went to get it..."  
  
"And he fell in." Agatio smiled thinly. "Menardi was crying so hard! Do you remember that?"  
  
"Not really." Karst admitted, relishing the older adept's warmth. "I remember her being holed up in her room for days afterward."  
  
"Nah, that was when I kissed her."  
  
Karst couldn't help but burst out laughing. She certainly couldn't have been around when THAT had happened...! "You -- you kissed MENARDI?"  
  
"Yep, I did." Agatio sighed ruefully as Karst continued her giggling. "Just on the cheek. I swear!"  
  
"That Valentine's -- that was the day I -- " Karst's eyes widened to a comical size. She began laughing again. "That was the day I followed Saturos around, because I thought I liked him!"  
  
"I did wonder why your head was sticking out of that bush..." Agatio frowned teasingly. Karst shoved him playfully.  
  
"Hey, that was ages ago!"  
  
"Oh, so now you're admitting you're old?" Agatio laughed at her insulted expression.  
  
"You're still older, you big oaf!"  
  
They laughed, joking about the day Agatio had decided to try and slide down the large snowdrift outside of town, and the day Karst got into Menardi's makeup case. Eventually, though, their glee died down as the snow began falling once more.  
  
"Still, Agatio..."  
  
"Don't worry, Karst."  
  
She stared up at him as he gazed out to the sky. For some reason, his words had a soothing effect on her. She sighed and instead looked towards the lighthouse, which emitted a soft red light.  
  
"Agatio... I kinda like you."  
  
Agatio blinked and looked down at her. She was snuggled firmly into his side, looking as adorable as when she was six.  
  
"Kind of?"  
  
"Yeah, kinda. I'm still not really sure. Love's always something... tentative, you know?"  
  
"Well... I kind of like you too, Karst."  
  
"Glad that's off my chest." Karst murmured. "I really don't want to die tomorrow and think to myself, 'I didn't tell him how I feel.'"  
  
"Or how you might feel."  
  
"Same difference," she sighed. Agatio grinned. "I do like you. I'm just... not really sure."  
  
"I like you too, Karst. As a friend or... something more, I don't know. But I like you."  
  
| x x x |  
  
"Karst...?"  
  
"Yeah, Agatio?"  
  
They lay, side by side, on the cold marble tiles of Mars Lighthouse. They had sustained many broken bones, bruises, and cuts -- too many to possibly live to the next day.  
  
"I do like you... A lot."  
  
Karst managed a dry laugh. "I still like you a lot, too, Agatio. In fact, I..." She coughed.  
  
"...love you?" Agatio finished for her, slowly.  
  
"...Yeah."  
  
"I do too," He said, as though thinking of other things as he spoke. "That star... Karst..."  
  
"What about... the star?"  
  
"I've never seen... a falling star... before... But I... But I think... I'm seeing one now..."  
  
"Agatio..." Karst murmured, reaching towards him with the arm that wasn't as broken. It was a painstaking process, but eventually, their hands were clasped, though loosely. "What do... you wish?"  
  
"I wish... I wish... we'll be together... somewhere else..."  
  
"I want to see Menardi... But I want to be with you... too..."  
  
"Forever?"  
  
"...Forever," Karst replied, her eyes fluttering shut. She was gone.  
  
Agatio followed.  
  
But only after making his wish on that falling star.  
  
| x x x |  
  
End  
  
| x x x |  
  
Egad, don't hurt me! ::Flees in terror::  
  
. : * : .  
  
it was just by fate  
  
. : * : . 


End file.
